Optic cupping caused by an intracranial aneurysm

A 51-year-old woman had optic disk cupping from optic nerve compression by an intracranial aneurysm. Slit-lamp stereoscopic examination of the living eye immediately post mortem revealed an optic cup vertically oral, elongated superiorly, and indistinguishable from disk changes seen early in glaucoma. The histopathological changes differed from those in glaucoma by showing no glial atrophy. Instead, the cupping was caused by loss of axons in the prelaminar region of the nerve head and collapse of glial columns.